E-Poll Market Research Blog

The Tween Years

Lying between playing in the sandbox and perusing the mall exist a commonly overlooked youth segment known as tweens (ages 9 – 12).  Tweens are unique in their strong brand loyalty, lower price-sensitivity, importance of family and high value of ”fitting in” with peer groups.

Gender also plays a significant role in tween preference and recognition. While there are properties that garner broad appeal, most top ranked characters differ from boys to girls.  Looking at tween aged boys and girls we wanted to know how gender plays a role when picking favorites.

Tweens’ Favorite Characters

Using E-Score Character Kids we looked at both girls and boys ages 9 -12 favorite characters.  The difference in appeal is stark as there are zero characters appearing in both boys and girls top 15 most appealing characters.

iCarly topped the list for girls with a like a lot score of 75% while not even appearing in the boys top 5 favorite characters list. Also in the girls top 5 is Alex Russo (Wizards of Waverly Place) and Alvin and the Chipmunks, neither appearing in boys top 5.  Phineas and Ferb topped the list for boys with a 66% like a lot score, followed with Iron Man and Dug (Up), all not appearing in the top 5 for girls.

E-Score Character Kids not only allows you to look at specific sub groups of hard to reach ages but examine how gender plays a considerable role in character appeal.

Thundercats Ho! or Ho Hum?

Warner Bros. Animation is betting audiences still have an appetite for 80′s cartoon revivals as the Thundercats returns in 2011 to Cartoon Network in a new animated show.  The humanoid cat-like aliens are being groomed to attract tween to young teen audiences with a more mature anime-style design.

Thundercats has fleetingly appeared in media in the past years aside from the occasional t-shirt and tweens are unlikely to have even seen the original series.  Do the Thundercats contain the power to capture the hotly-contested attention of young audiences or will they fall to the legion of live-action tween sitcoms-stay tuned!

Thundercats Attribute Scores

Using E-Score Character Kids we looked at how 6-12 years olds perceive Thundercats.  71% see the Thundercats as ”a hero” 36 points higher than the animated character average (71% vs. 35%).  Thundercats were seen 10 percentage points higher than average for ”cool” (44% vs. 34%) and 15 points higher than average in ”exciting” (39% vs. 24%). Also, Thundercats earned a ”brave” score more than double the average for animated characters (58% vs. 27%). Thundercats awareness among boys is 20%, 18 points lower than animated character average but substantial despite limited use.

Looking at the attribute scores we can see a strong moralistic component to how current younger audiences view Thundercats.  In the original show each episode would focus on a value or moral that allowed for their victory against the evil Mumm-Ra.  Thundercats virtuous characteristics have carried to current young audiences and carved out an identity despite limited exposure.  E-Score Character Kids has the ability to measure characters despite any lapsed exposure or obscurity.

Source: E-Score Character Kids 6-12